32 weeks-To Bed, To Bed I Said!

I am now 32 weeks and 5 days into this pregnancy. 32 weeks is a big accomplishment with a multiple pregnancy, or so everyone keeps telling me. Do I feel accomplished? Hmmm, does feeling huge count? Or maybe its feeling aches and pains in places that no one wants me to talk about, does that count? Maybe it's feeling heartburn when I'm already taking 40mg of Nexium that counts. Huh? No! That doesn't count? I guess it's the feeling of knowing that my babies are safe and sound with rapidly beating hearts and wiggling little bodies. Yea, that's it!

Monday I went to see the hematologist. After waiting in the exam room for about an hour in the exam room, Nolan and I finally met Dr Walling. We went over my history and what is going on currently with this pregnancy. We decided that I would have more blood work done to test my iron levels since I have been taking the iron supplement for a few weeks now. We are going to see what the levels are and if they are still too low, I will start iron infusions. If my levels are close to normal, then I get to decide if I want to take the iron infusion or if I will just continue taking the oral supplement. I'm still waiting to hear back about my blood work, but I did go ahead and set up appointments for the iron infusions. If I do them, they will be done on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and they take 1-2 hours. Right now, I'm signed up for 5 infusions. I may need more depending on my iron levels. Hopefully 5 is all I need!

Yesterday was my 32 week OB appointment. This was going to be at least a 3 hour appointment so I figured Georgia would be happier with Mamaw and Papaw (and she was). I decided to meet my friends Gretchen and Betty for lunch before my appointment. I was feeling a little sickly when I woke up but figured once I got up and moving that things would get better. They did get better, but I still wasn't feeling great. Anyway, I met up with Betty and Gretchen. We were sitting at the table talking and all of the sudden I knew that I was going to loose my lunch. Well, I hadn't had my lunch yet, thank goodness. Anyway, there is nothing like seeing a large pregnant woman making a mad dash for the bathroom. Anyway, I made it to the bathroom in time (barely, whew!) and after I pulled myself together,  I felt well enough to get a cup of soup and chit chat with my friends. I was feeling fine during lunch and even when I left to go to my appointment. But by the time I got to the OB office (which was only a 5 minute drive), I was not feeling well again. But I was there and I was not about to reschedule all of these appointments because I was a little under the weather. And really, is there a better place to be when you're sick, than a doctor's office? Heck yea, my bed would have been lovely at that point, but I was able to tough it out.

First I went for my ultrasound. Vicki was on vacation, so Rita did my ultrasound. I told her about my unfortunate situation and she was very understanding and tried to make me as comfortable as possible while pressing on my tummy. I ended up getting really hot and sweaty and I had to lay on my side for most of the ultrasound. At one point I even had to get up and walk around for a bit just to try and make me feel better. For those of you that are wondering, having someone push on your tummy when you feel like you are going to puke is NOT a great feeling. Just an FYI.

Onto the ultrasound results: Baby A is still head down. Her heartbeat was at 146. She weighs 4lbs 4oz. Baby B is also head down and has moved into a very low position. Baby A and Baby B have their heads almost right next to each other. They are crammed in there now. Baby B is also doing very well. Her heartbeat was at 135 and she weighs 4lbs 3oz. Both babies passed all of their little tests...they did the right amount of wiggles, all of their organs looked good, all of their measurements looked good and they did their breathing exercises! Yea! Good job girls.

I on the other hand, while not doing bad, am not doing as well as before. Every other week at my ultrasound, my cervical length is checked to make sure that things have not changed too much. I have been a superstar thus far and everyone has been amazed by how well I'm keeping these little ladies trapped in my womb even though Baby A's head has been pushing down for several weeks now. Well, two weeks ago my cervix measured at 4.3cm . Anything over 3cm  is good, anything over 3.5cm  is excellent. Well, in two weeks I've gone from 4.3cm to 2.6cm. Now a measurement of 2.6cm is pretty normal for someone carrying twins at this point in pregnancy, but since it was such a big change in just two weeks Rita said that it might be cause for a little bit of concern. She asked if I had been having any contractions. I have not had any that I'm aware of, but I have had some mild back pain. So she said that the NST would show if I was contracting or not and that if I was there was some medicine that Dr Voelkel could give me to stop them. She reassured me that this was not something to worry about at this point.

At the end of the ultrasound, I mentioned to Rita that I wished I would have bought a Sprite before I came for my appointment. She said, "we have some in the back, would you like me to get you one?" Oh yea!!! It was very sweet of her, she could have just let me go on and be miserable but she took a little bit of extra time to help me out. She brought me can of Sprite with a straw and all. Thanks Rita, the Sprite helped!!!

Up next was my NST (non stress test). Beatrice was able to get both baby's heartbeats right away, which was great. And I was able to sit there in a recliner and rest and listen to heartbeats and push the little button every time they kicked......we got 106 kicks in about an hour this week! Dr Voelkel looked at the NST results and said they looked beautiful. Glad that went smoothly this week. No drama there!

A medical assistant was able to take me back to an exam room right away for my appointment with Dr Voelkel. Well, before I went in to the room, she weighed me. I had actually lost 1lb since my appointment two weeks ago. So, each baby gained about 1lb each and I lost 1lb in two weeks. These gals are sucking the life right out of me!!! That's ok, as long as they are doing well! And, I was told this would happen and that is why I was on such a high calorie diet at the beginning of my pregnancy. I just can't eat much anymore. There is no room left. If I do eat more than I should, the heartburn is insane and totally not worth it.

While I was waiting for Dr Voelkel, I took a little cat nap on the exam table. When she did come into the room she talked about how great the babies looked on both the ultrasound and the NST. She was impressed with their weight and how much they are moving right now. She did mention that my cervix has gotten much shorter over the past two weeks. She asked if I had been having contractions. I told her about some upper abdominal cramps that I had earlier that morning and I had some lower back pain over the weekend. She said that they upper abdominal pain I felt was probably from the heartburn I was having due to the babies taking up waaaaay too much room (she put me on an extra dose of Nexium to help with the heartburn). The back pain she wasn't sure about since it could just be normal aches and pains or it could be contractions that I feel in my back, but she did say that they didn't pick up any contractions on the NST. She wanted to check to see if I started dilating or not. Welp, she checked and I am dilated 1cm. And with that information,  I was told that the time had come for me to slow down. I'm not on complete bed rest, but, I'm not supposed to be doing too much. So no house cleaning, no exercising, no long shopping trips, no working....basically nothing where I'm on my feet for too long. And when I'm at home I should try to rest and put my feet up.

What does this mean for us? Well, my mom has already been coming over and helping me keep up with the house work....you know lugging around the mop bucket since I really can't lift anything like that and cleaning the showers, since I can't really bend over for very long since I get short of breath when I do and sweeping the stairs.....the reason for that is because I did that once when I was pregnant with Georgia and I got into a little bit of trouble from my hubby! He doesn't like it when I do things like that and really, it's probably a good idea for me to not do those things anyway. So, anyway, she was already coming over and helping me with those things so she will continue to do that and probably more. And Nolan knew that the time was coming when I would probably be put on some sort of bed rest so he has been preparing for this day. So he will be picking up a little bit more slack. Not that he hasn't already been doing that, he really has been doing a lot around the house and there are just things that I can't help him with and he understands that. And Georgia, well, she has been a big help too. She picks things up for me when I drop them on the floor. She dusts for me. She helps unload the dishwasher. She brings her laundry downstairs and separates it and puts the clothes in the washer for me. She has been helping get the nursery ready for the babies. She has been helping water the plants outside as well as the garden. She really has been doing a lot for a 4 year old. And my brother and his family are close by and I know that all we have to do is call them for help if we need it and we also have great friends who have offered to help us out when ever we need it. So hopefully, things will be covered. I just have to let people do things for me. It's hard for me to let someone do something for me when I feel fine, but I have to let that go I suppose!

Also, this modified bed rest does not mean that I can't do a darn thing.....I can still make a quick trip to Target if I need too, I can still unload the dishwasher. I can do the laundry. I can do things that don't require a lot of work. Last night I unloaded the dishwasher and washed a few dishes by hand for about 10 minutes and Nolan reminded me not to do too much. I'm not going to do too much, but if I don't do something, I might go crazy. I know not to do too much because I don't want my babies born at 32 weeks and I don't want contractions to start and I don't want to go back to my OB next week and find out that I'm dilated more and be put on complete bed rest. So I keep all of those things in mind and I will take it easy most of the time!

So, I go back to the OB office next week. I'm not seeing my doctor, but I am getting an ultrasound and NST. I was having my cervical length checked every other week during my ultrasounds, but Dr Voelkel  is going to start checking that every week to make sure that things are not changing too quickly. And Dr Voelkel told me to call her if I start having contractions or if I think that I'm having contractions. At that point in time, they can put me on some medication to stop the contractions. So, all in all, things are still looking really good and it doesn't seem like we are going to be having babies really soon. It should still be a few more weeks before they make their grand entrance. We are hoping that all of  this means that they will start labor on their own and since they are both head down, that I won't have to have a C-section! We are staying positive.....my OB is still hoping that I make it to 38 weeks......I'm hoping for about 36 :) Actually, I want them to come as soon as possible without anyone needing to stay in the hospital.

So continue to think of us and we are making our way towards the end of this pregnancy. There are lots of things to do in these last few weeks before the babies are born.....we are having a garage sale on Saturday, we need to put the finishing touches on the nursery, we have one more baby shower (so grateful for to the people Nolan works with for throwing us one), we were going to have a birthday party for Georgia (that might be put off until after the babies are born) and there are just numerous things around the house that always need to be done. Hopefully they will all get done, but if they don't we won't stress. We have everything we need to bring out babies home and that's all that matters.

More updates next week.....